As a user of Hot Property who, like many, is awaiting further development of that component. I welcome this conversion and update of Accombo.
This component worked straight away. Some work is needed on the English phrasing that is used, but I image that it wouldn't be too difficult to get it just how you want it.
The component easily handles the basic requirement, to list and categorise accommodation in a travel portal - like mine.
There is a link in the accommodation display to an Italian weather site - a useful feature but it couldn't find my town - the 2nd largest city in Ireland. I guess I would remove it or see if I could use an English variant.
It has nice features that you won't get for the $119 you spend on Hot Property - namely a drop down box to choose hotel star rating that shows up graphically in the listing AND facilties graphics selected from a tick box. These show the little graphics to summarise accommodation that are recognisable worldwide - but not available in Hot Property.
The pricing and availablity request features are basic, but as I use other secure booking systems I would not want to have these features built in.
The layouts are attractive but basic and not within the control of admin - I think they use the CSS from the template - but this would be acceptable for many admins.
There is a searchbot that is functionally good, but needs to be translated to English - although it shouldn't be hard.
For me, where Hot Property scores above Alberghi is with its ability to add custom fields and to re-order those fields. PLUS, I extensively use the extra 'free' modules delivered with Hot Property throughout my site. They feature selected (or random) accommodation in module positions throughout the main content of my site and are an essential part of my sales effort. I suppose that it might be possible to create such effects with other modules and Alberghi - but I wouldn't know how.
What neither products offer, and is much requested by Hot Property users is the abilty to have more than 1 level of directory. For example:
Hotel Accommodation/England/London
OR
Cottage/England/Cornwall/St. Ives
(I use '/' to indicate a directory branch)
So in summary - a good free alternative, and if not for the 'free' modules that come with Hot Property I would propably save the money and use Alberghi.